SC puts mom first, allows Mumbaikar to abort 24-week-old baby with disorders

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a 22-yr-old Mumbai-based woman to terminate her 24-week pregnancy. The top court took the decision after the woman revealed that the baby had no kidney and would die after taking birth and that is also posed a risk to her life.

The court took into consideration Mumbai's KEM Hospital medical board report which confirmed that the foetus suffers from disorders and continuation of pregnancy would endanger the mother's life.

A bench of Justices S. A. Bobde and L. N. Rao, in an interim order, had directed a seven-member medical board of Mumbai-based King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital to examine the woman and submit the report before it.

“The board shall examine petitioner number one (woman) and submit a report about her condition and advisability of permitting a medical termination of pregnancy, forthwith,” the bench had said and also issued notice to the Centre on the plea.

The law prohibits termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks, even if there is a fatal risk to the mother and the foetus. “The petitioner found out in the 21st week of her pregnancy that the foetus doesn’t have kidneys. She had to undergo two scans before this could established and the foetus has multiple anomalies,” the woman has said in her petition.

The medical board constituted by the bench consists of doctors from the departments of psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, medicine, radiology and anaesthesia.

In a separate case, the apex court had on January 16 allowed a Mumbai-based woman, who was in her 24th week of pregnancy, to terminate her pregnancy under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act while taking into consideration the report of medical board of KEM Hospital which had suggested that the foetus would not be able to survive without the skull.